The present invention relates generally to the field of cooking devices, and specifically to commercial steam cooking devices.
Modern steam ovens operate by heating water to generate steam and then supplying the steam to a cooking cavity containing food. Some of these steam ovens operate at low pressures, slightly above atmospheric, while others are openly vented to atmosphere. For either arrangement, one problem is ensuring the proper distribution of steam within the cooking cavity for optimum cooking. Some limited efforts have been made to use forced recirculation of the air/steam mixture in the cooking cavity, such as by using a recirculation fan connected to the cooking cavity, in order to make the cooking more efficient. The recirculation path for such units is typically simply from the cooking cavity directly to the fan and then back to the cooking cavity. Such units supply steam to the cooking cavity, typically by injecting steam directly into the cooking cavity via some route that is separate from any recirculation path. For instance, new steam may be generated in a separate steam chamber and then piped directly into the cooking cavity. Such arrangements are believed to provide rather inefficient heat transfer, particularly if the new “hot” steam is not thoroughly mixed with the older “cooler” steam already supplied to the cooking cavity.